acta est fabula
by StarSplit144
Summary: Moments in time during the final leg of the journey to Earth. Very small instances of Adama/Roslin, Sharon/Helo Lee/Kara, and Sam/Kara. Character deaths warning. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

_**Summary: **__Basically this story is several moments taking place during the final leg of the journey to Earth. There is some Roslin/Adama, some Lee/Kara, a little Sam/Kara near the end, and major character deaths warning. I am not going to attempt to explain the grand plan of the cylons, nor will I try to theorize what will come of Baltar's plotline. All this story assumes is that they find Earth, and it is close to present day – something that I doubt will actually happen in the show, but it works for the purpose of this story. _

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Battlestar Galactica, or any of the characters of Galactica. All I own are my ideas and theories._

_**A/N:**__ Thanks to Alex for being my sounding board, and for helping me to come up with this idea in the first place. Oh and please leave comments. Love it? Hate it? I don't care either way. Just let me know._

--

1.

He sat beside her bedside, his large hand enclosing her smaller one. He had gotten fed up with the media hours ago and kicked them out, and after Cottle admitted that there was nothing more that he could do for her, he had kicked the doctor out too. So now they were alone in his quarters, since he had never actually gotten around to finding somewhere else to put her up while she went through the Deloxin treatment. He stroked her naked scalp, mourning the loss of her beautiful hair to the cancer treatments. She opened her eyes slowly, the drug-induced fog, making them blurry. But for the first time in months, he could not see pain in them. Cottle had scrounged up enough pain meds to allow her to pass away peacefully, and for that, he was grateful. He felt her hand move ever so slightly in his. She tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come out of her throat. With his free hand, he reached for a glass of water and gently placed it to her lips. She sipped and was finally able to speak through cracked lips.

"Bill?" His breath hitched in his throat, and he found himself unable to speak for a moment.

"I'm here," he finally managed, squeezing her hand lightly. He saw a look of relief in her eyes, and his thoughts flashed back to a conversation from months ago, when Kara first returned.

o0o

As he poured himself another glass, he heard her voice from behind him.

"You're so afraid to live alone."

"And you're afraid to die that way." She made a small sound of acknowledgment, but he continued. "You're afraid that you may not be the dying leader you thought you were. Or that your death may be as meaningless as everyone else's.

o0o

It was only later that night that he found the tufts of hair in the bottom of his garbage. And that was when the rift between them started to widen. He was afraid. Afraid to lose her to the cancer, and afraid to lose his daughter again. As Kara's absence grew longer, the gulf widened. He watched her as she grew more and more stressed, knowing that a part of it was from trying to cover for him. So he watched, and worried. He tried to make overtures, to help her through the worst times, sharing with her their common interest in mysteries. And she allowed that. As her illness worsened, they sped through his dwindling collection of books even faster. It was the small bridge between them that was all that remained of their bond before Kara's return from the dead. He held onto that bond, and as her cancer worsened, it slowly began to grow stronger again. He soon found himself in the position of fighting off all the media and well-wishers who seemed to feel that their presence would improve her suffering. More and more often, Saul would take one look at him in the morning, and expel him from CIC to get some sleep after having spent the whole night at her side, helping her to fight the nausea. The stories became a refuge. A place where no one had cancer, where the good guys always won, and the criminals were punished, and everyone went home happy.

As he looked into her eyes again, he saw the question there, and answered it in the only way he could.

"I'll stay." He saw the look of relief in her eyes, as she fought to keep them open; as she finally lost that battle, and as her grip on his hand finally slackened.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Battlestar Galactica, or any of the characters of Galactica. All I own are my ideas and theories._

--

2.

He rushed into sickbay, and looked in horror at his best friend. Bandages were tied in place over his stomach, but blood was already seeping through it.

"Doc!" He looked over at Cottle, who shook his head.

"Gut shot. Nothing I could do even if I had the best damn facilities in Caprica City. We got the bullet out, but it's just gotten worse. Internal damage." Cottle took a long drag on his ever-present cigarette, and sighed. "'Bout the only thing I can do is give him something for the pain. And if he keeps being so stubborn about holding on, I'm gonna run out of that real soon." With that he injected the drugs into the IV, and left, closing the curtains to give the two men some privacy.

Bill sank down in the chair next to his best friend's bed, and took his hand. The hand jerked, and Saul's eyes flew open.

"Bill…" he rasped, eyes wide. "Why are you here? You've got to get away from me!"

"I'll take my chances."

"You don't understand!" Saul's voice lowered. "I'm a cylon! A frakking skinjob! I could go off any minute!" Bill felt his stomach clench but his body didn't betray any reaction. In truth he had noticed when his best friend had started acting strange. Had noticed how he seemed suddenly fascinated by the Six that was being held on Galactica; the only known cylon onboard now that Athena was off with Kara on the Demetrius. Had noticed that Saul seemed distracted and easily startled. But he hadn't let himself put the pieces together. He had been afraid to face what it could mean. And then he thought about something his son had asked him right after Kara's miraculous return.

o0o

"Dad, what if Zak had come back to us in that viper? If my brother had climbed out of that cockpit. Would it matter if he were a cylon? If he always had been? When all's said and done, would that change how we really feel about him?

o0o

He had known that Lee was talking about Kara – about the woman he loved – when he had said that, but the question still applied. Did being a cylon make Saul a different person than the man he had always known?

"I know." Saul looked at him, stunned. "Little things. Couple of comment you made. I doubt anyone else knows."

"I didn't know what I was gonna do Bill. I could have vented all the air in the frakkin ship without even knowing! I wasn't even sure who I was anymore!" Looking at his friend's slightly panicked face, he felt the need to reassure him.

"No matter what you may be, I know who you are. You are Saul Tigh. That is who you are to me. And that's who you will always be." He felt his eyes tearing up, and tried to hide it from his friend, to no avail. But Saul chose not to comment on it, opting for something to relieve the tension instead.

"These drugs the doc hooked me up to are pretty good, but I could sure use a drink right about now."

"I had a feeling." He smiled slightly as he drew the small flask out of his boot and took a swing before handing it to his friend

--

_**A/N:**__ Okay guys, 190 hits, and no comments. I would really appreciate either a "good job" or a "this is horrible" one or the other. A good chunk of you on this site are authors yourselves and you know how nice getting comments is. It doesn't take that long. On other notes, this chapter was impossible to write. Tigh is incredibly hard to kill without it seeming too contrived, or too out of character. I hope I did it decently, but I personally like the previous chapter much better. Thanks again to Alex for being a sounding board for the 10 odd death scenarios I wrote up. Hopefully I'll get the next chapter posted in a few days._


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Battlestar Galactica, or any of the characters of Galactica. All I own are my ideas and theories._

--

3.

"Again. DRADIS clear," she heard Lee's voice call out from the back of the raptor. "No cylon contacts, no static, nothing. Now just sit tight for an hour and then we can report the all clear back to Galactica."

"Well you never know. I could be leading us into a cylon trap."

"Come on Kara," he started. "No one-"

"No one what? Where you going to say that no one believes that? Because if no one believed that, we wouldn't be here."

"Well I don't believe that," he amended. And it was the truth. He had believed in her since she had stepped off that viper. Believed in her when everyone else thought that she had taken the Demetrius and left. And when his father asked for a member of the political cabinet to accompany her on the recon jumps in order to reassure the fleet, he had volunteered immediately. It had helped that having him along would save having to task one of the ECO's in accompanying them. The story of her miraculous return from the dead had spread through the fleet like wildfire, and so had the rampant cylon conspiracy theories. The Demetrius's months long absence did little to help these rumours, and even with her return, he knew that most people still didn't trust her assertion and that of her crew that she had found Earth.

"I know," she finally answered. There was a long silence. Talking had never been their strong suit, and Lee doubted it ever would be.

"You bring a deck?"

"Yeah."

"You wanna get back here and deal me in. Haven't had a decent game of triad since you left," he joked.

"Oh you are just asking you get your ass kicked Apollo." He could hear the grin in her voice as she flicked out the deck and settled down in the back compartment with him.

o0o

As she cleared up the cards and headed back to the front compartment, he reached out and touched her cheek softly.

"I missed you Kara." She brought her hand up against his and smiled. Free of barriers, free of pretension, she was beautiful.

"I missed you too Lee." With one last squeeze of her hand, she put her helmet back on, and moved to the front and to begin jump prep.

o0o

"Galactica. Starbuck. Next jump coordinates reported clear of cylon activity."

"Starbuck. Galactica." Dee's voice crackled over the wireless. "Apollo can you confirm jump coordinates free of cylon contacts." He heard Kara's forced exhale, but he knew that she was aware of opinions in the fleet, and that she knew nothing short of finding Earth would change those opinions.

"Galactica. Apollo. Affirmative. Jump coordinates free of cylon activity."

"Apollo. Galactica. Acknowledged. The Aurora's got a busted nav. Galactica actual requests you guide her through the jump."

"Galactica. Starbuck. Wilco." As soon as Galactica broke contact, Lee switched over to a private channel.

"Kara?"

"I'm fine Lee. Really. I know what the fleet believes about me. I just want to get to Earth." With that she switched off the channel and hailed The Aurora.

"Aurora. Starbuck. Hear you're having trouble with your nav. We're going to pin you to the jump point. You can fix it on the other side."

"This is The Aurora. I think we've got it fixed but it will take a couple minutes to reboot. Assistance appreciated. Receiving jump coordinates." They watched as the other ships blinked out of existence, and then inputted the coordinates themselves as The Aurora blinked out.

o0o

"Galactica. Starbuck. Reporting in with The Aurora."

"Starbuck. Galactica. Acknowledged. Come on home."

"Galactica. Starbuck. Coming home." She turned the raptor towards the Galactica where it was floating at the other side of the fleet, but stopped short at Lee's panicked shout.

"Contact! It looks like…one bogey. Cylon basestar CBDR, bearing 187, carom 221."

"Galactica. Starbuck. We've got a contact here. Request cavalry."

"Starbuck. Galactica. CAP is fuelling up. Cavalry will be there shortly."

"Frak!" he heard her shout, and the raptor was jerked around.

"What the hell are you doing Kara!

"Cavalry won't be here soon enough and Galactica has no firing solution. Just you and me Apollo. Ready missiles."

"Readying missiles. "

"Target acquired. Release missiles on my mark. Mark."

"Missiles released." They watched as the weapons sped through space and impacted the basestar, just missing their weak spot.

"Frak! Galactica where's the cavalry?!"

"Starbuck. Hot Dog. Will be there in two minutes."

"Basestar beginning to launch raiders!" came Lee's voice from the back compartment.

"Frak! Okay, Lee get your ass up here!" She hit the throttle, and they sped towards the direct centre of the basestar. Lee strapped into the co-pilot seat, and watched as she made minute course adjustments to send them right in the middle of the huge ship.

"Prepare for ejection." He gave her a thumbs up and she yanked the ejection lever. Nothing happened. She pulled on it again, and their eyes met. As their eyes met, he could have sworn he saw an absolute calmness come over her. And as he stared at her, he felt it pass over him as well.

"I'll see you on the other side, Lee." She repeated the words of so many months ago. In response, he reached out his hand, and placed it on top of hers. They both faced the oncoming basestar, whose raiders were just beginning to launch. They were both dimly aware of someone screaming over the wireless. But it was too late.

o0o

"LEE! KARA! EJECT! EJECT!" he was screaming into the wireless, heedless of the stares of those in CIC. Finally Gaeta spoke up.

"Sir, Hot Dog reports bogey destroyed." He picked up the phone.

"Hot Dog. Actual. Any sign of an ejection seat?" Though he knew logically that nothing would have survived ejecting that close to the exploding ship, he couldn't help but hope.

"Actual. Hot Dog. No sign. They're… gone." The young pilot didn't sound so great either. Bill just stared. He was probably in shock, his mind diagnosed absently. He faintly heard Dee calling out to him, asking instructions through poorly masked tears, but he could not bring himself to care. Lee was gone. Kara was gone. And with them the last of his family. He vaguely heard Helo give the order to call the Vipers home and jump out before more cylons arrived. He vaguely felt his fingers cramp as he grasped the side of the console. He felt the usual sickening sensation of the FTL jump, but even that seemed muted. He heard all the ships announced as checked in, and then he heard the CIC go silent. Everyone was affected in some way, and no one wanted to say anything. He finally heard Helo order Gaeta to take over the con, and then there was an arm around his shoulder, guiding him out of the CIC. The younger man didn't speak, and for that, he was grateful. He didn't know if he could have answered. He was adrift, without anything to anchor him to this world. The woman he had come to see as his partner in life was gone. His brother was gone. And now his children were gone.

--

_**A/N**__: Huge thanks go out to Mariel3 and Afoo. Thanks to both of you for taking a couple seconds to press that nice little button. It is much appreciated. This chapter is one of the few that will deviate from Adama's point of view, but I had to give Lee and Kara a decent send-off, and this was the best way I could think of to do it. Because they are Lee and Kara, Starbuck and Apollo, two parts of a whole. They had to go out together. I hope you liked this one; next one should be up in a few days hopefully, unless it proves particularly difficult to write. So if you've actually read it up to hear, then please just take a couple more seconds to press that button and type in a couple words. Thanks a lot in advance. And even if you don't comment, thanks for taking the time to read._


	4. Chapter 4

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Battlestar Galactica, or any of the characters of Galactica. All I own are my ideas and theories._

--

4.

"Hot Dog! You gonna fold yet??" Racetrack challenged him from the other side of the table, as Redwing, Two Times, and Freaker, already having folded, egged him on.

"No frakkin way." Over to the side, a bunch of the new pilots were laying bets on the contestants.

"Don't you rooks have anything better to do?" asked Narcho from his own game with Gonzo, Showboat, and Skulls.

"Betting is actually worth it now that Starbuck…" Seelix trailed off as the whole room went silent. Starbuck and Apollo's deaths had become a sensitive topic among all the pilots, especially given the fact that their deaths may well have saved a good portion of the fleet. Finally Racetrack broke the silence.

"Okay frak it. Fold." She threw down her cards, and headed for the hatch. As she pulled it open, she saw a small blinking light from the corner of her eye, and then the world went to hell.

o0o

As he sat in his quarters, a half empty bottle beside him, and a full glass in his hand, he thought he heard the dulled sound of an explosion, but immediately dismissed it as the memories that had been playing over in his head for the past few weeks. If there was a problem Saul would…no not Saul. Helo. Helo would deal with it. Helo would tell him if there was something wrong. It was probably just something echoing down the corridors. Everything seemed to echo of late. The Galactica's corridors seemed too quiet without her voice, always pitched just a little too loudly, echoing through them. Without their voices, bickering, flirting, arguing. But always together. It was nothing but his imagination. Slightly comforted by this thought, he took another sip, before he was jarred from his slightly dazed state by the ringing of the telephone.

"What is it?" he asked harshly, though the effect was ruined with the slight slurring of his words.

"Sir," It was Dee. "You'd better come down here."

"What is it, Dee?"

"Well, sir, there seems to have been some kind of explosion in the pilots' rec room. We've got dead and wounded" He heard the catch in her voice, but couldn't respond. All he could think about was the death. The senseless death.

o0o

"Once again, we are charged with the solemn duty to return the bodies of our own to the universe from which the lords of Kobol brought them to us." The priest standing before the gathering was not Elosha, but she reminded him of the woman who had become Laura's advisor in religious matters before the trip down to Kobol. "The burdens of this life are with us but a short time. For their time was too short, but we take comfort in knowing their lives were willingly given in service to all of us." His children had given their lives to save the fleet. But Galactica was a family. And all the dead were his children. And they had all died such a senseless death. One he was sure none of them would have imagined for themselves. "We honour them for that. And thus, it falls upon us to repent our sins and with the help of the lords of Kobol, make our own lives worthy of that gift. And now, we commit their bodies to that from which we were all made. Secure in the knowledge that we will be reunited with them, in a better world to come. So say we all."

"So say we all," echoed through the hangar deck, as he walked through the twelve bodies of the dead. He picked up their dogtags, committing their names to memory as he did so. Marcia "Showboat" Case. Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson. Hamish "Skulls" McCall. Eammon "Gonzo" Pike. Brendan "Hot Dog" Costanza. Noel "Narcho" Allison. Paolo "Redwing" McKay. Ricky "Two Times" Richardson. Mei "Freaker" Firelli. Diana "Hardball" Seelix. Dana "Darkwing" Anderson. Jeff "Foobar" Foo. Twelve more of his family dead. Four injured, two of them badly enough that it was unlikely they would ever fly again. He stepped out of the launch bay as the doors began to shut on the twelve bodies.

He looked back and saw how small the crew was compared to when they first set out on this journey to Earth. Back when Earth was only a hope; only something for people to strive for. They had lost so many. Galen Tyrol stood in the crowd with his son in his arms, his wife a victim of suicide. Sam "Longshot" Anders stood alone too. He knew that the man had always loved Kara. Had known exactly who she was and had loved her unconditionally. Probably would have stepped aside if she and Lee were still alive. But they weren't. And now to add to the former pyramid star's burden, four members of his nugget group were dead too. One in the battle of the nebula as it had been dubbed, and three in the recent explosion. He looked for other familiar faces – faces that had been there from the beginning, but there were so few. Captain George "Catman" Birch, given another chance at being CAG by virtue of being one of the highest-ranking officers left after the death of Captain Case, stood with the other pilots. Their faces were all blank. Emotions hidden with military precision. But their eyes told the story of the losses they had endured.

He turned, and saluted sharply. He heard the sound of their boots echoing through the hangar bay as those behind imitated him. And the bodies floated out the airlock, to float forever in emptiness.

--

_**A/N**__: Huge thanks go out to Mariel3 and Afoo. Thanks to both of you for taking a couple seconds to press that nice little button. It is much appreciated. So sorry this took so long to post. I went through a lot of ideas for this chapter before I got this draft written. So I hope you like it. If you've actually read it up to here, then please just take a couple more seconds to press that button and type in a couple words. Thanks a lot in advance. And even if you don't comment, thanks for taking the time to read._


	5. Chapter 5

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Battlestar Galactica, or any of the characters of Galactica. All I own are my ideas and theories._

--

5.

Nicky sat in the corner of the small apartment, glued to the cartoon characters displayed on the square cut screen, while Galen sat at the dingy window, looking out at the crowded streets of Earth. After almost a year of decontamination, and diplomatic talks, it was a relief to finally be released into Earth society. He had been asked to help with interfacing Earth and Colonial technology, but had declined. He was through with the war. He wanted the war to be through with him. All he really wanted was to live out the rest of his life in relative peace, and because he had stayed in the background during the diplomatic talks, his face was relatively unknown to the billions of people on the planet Earth.

It was raining outside, which brought back memories of New Caprica. Of the year of happiness before the cylons came, and the occupation began. Before his and Cally's marriage slowly started to fall apart. Before his wife was murdered.

He had never had proof of her murder, but he had been suspicious as soon as Tory had shown up with Nicky in her arms. But he hadn't wanted to believe. Hadn't wanted to believe that Tory could kill his wife in cold blood. Because that implied that he was capable of the same.

Behind him, Nicky giggled at the television, tearing him away from the window. He didn't really know where the other survivors had ended up, although he knew that, had he really wanted to, he could have found out. But he didn't want to. Here, on Earth, he could outwardly forget the war, forget the years aboard Galactica, forget New Caprica, and Kobol. He could just live from one day to the next. He was not really known by his neighbours, they did not try to comfort him, or empathize with him. They left him alone. Alone was where he wanted to be. Alone with his memories.

--

Sam Anders watched again as the crowds parted for him. Having been at the forefront of the diplomatic talks, the entire world seemed to know his face, and he wondered again why he had been talked into making such a public figure of himself.

o0o

"Admiral." He stepped into the Admiral's quarters and saluted. The old man didn't acknowledge him right away, but instead stared at something sliver that he held in his hand. Finally he seemed to come to his senses, and slipped the object into his pocket before looking up.

"Lieutenant Anders. Come in." He waved the younger man into a chair, and then sat down himself. "As you doubtless know, Earth has asked that we send down a delegation to begin talks. President Zarek and the quorum are obviously going, but we are sending a small military detachment, led by Captain Agathon." He paused, and Sam saw him finger his pocket, and suddenly understood what it must be. This was the sort of situation that would usually have been entrusted to Apollo. The son had never been as rigidly military as the father; had always been able to deal with politicians with much more patience. Even though he had hung up his uniform, he would have still been able to act as a buffer between the military and the politicians of Earth. But he was no longer available in that capacity. "I want you to accompany this detachment. You were in the spotlight all the time back before the attack, and you know how to handle the press. Kara trusted you, and I will take her judgement any day."

o0o

And after that, what could he have said. He had agreed to serve as one of the first in the fleet to set foot on Earth. His face had been played over all their televisions. His voice broadcast over all wireless channels. When the Colonials had finally been allowed to spread out on the legendary planet of Earth, he had been one of the first from Galactica to follow them. Bit by bit, the shorthanded crew of Galactica trained the humans of Earth to run the great ship, and migrated down to the surface themselves. Most were able to blend in easily enough. The time taken for diplomatic talks allowed everyone to get used to Earth technology, and the other slight differences in Earth society, and unlike him, their faces weren't known to the world.

He was a celebrity though. He could not walk the streets without a hush spreading out as people stared at the "alien". He could not walk through the door of his apartment without being bombarded by questions. And once he got through the door, and into his lonely apartment, all he wanted was to stop being alone. Though almost everything in the apartment was newly purchased on Earth, everything seemed to remind him of her. But she was gone, as was everyone else he had ever been close to. His pyramid team, those that had survived Caprica, had eventually all died, he was the last left from his group of nuggets, and the woman who he had loved had died, not once, but twice.

--

He stood in the observation deck looking out over the planet Earth. He remembered Kara's words when she returned from the dead; "Big blue oceans, fluffy white clouds. You're gonna love it. I promise." And they had followed her course, and they had finally gotten here. Most of the civilians had already moved down to the surface, and their ships were now in several research and development facilities spread throughout the planet. Some of his crew as well as some civilian engineers had been tasked to work on interfacing the Colonial technology with Earth technology. They had proved to be remarkably deficient in space flight technology. Only the Galactica still remained in orbit around the planet, doing a token job at guarding against the cylons if they ever managed to find them. Each day, fewer crewmembers remained on Galactica, having been replaced by the men and women of Earth. He would be the last to leave, turning over the command in a few months time. Until then, he would watch as his crew, the last of his family, embraced the promised land.

--

_**A/N**__: Huge thanks go out to Mariel3, laloveskt, and jewel of the sea for reviews. They mean a lot, so thank you. I know this took forever, but I just started my summer job which involves waking up at 4:30 in the morning, and going to sleep at 10:00 pm. Given that my most productive writing time is between 10:00 pm and 2:00 am, I got very little done. The next chapter however, is almost done, as is the last, so hopefully they will be up before the next episode. If you read this, please do me a favour and leave a small comment. Even if it's nothing more than if you liked or hated it. Thanks again._


	6. Chapter 6

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Battlestar Galactica, or any of the characters of Galactica. All I own are my ideas and theories._

--

6.

"Mommy! Daddy! Look at me!" His hand curled around her shoulder as they walked over to the swing set where their six-year-old daughter was energetically pumping her legs as she flew higher and higher.

"Careful baby. Don't go to high," she warned.

"Daddy! Push me!" He squeezed her shoulder before moving behind their daughter. She leaned against the triangular frame of the swing set and watched father and daughter together. They had stayed behind for a while to help with the training of the new crew, and had only gotten down to Earth a few months ago, but it already felt like they had been there forever. For the first time, she had discovered a life where people didn't give her wary looks when they thought she couldn't see. For the first time, she didn't feel the need to prove that she was human. She was simply accepted as such. Hera had already made friends on their street, and would be starting school in another week. Once Hera started, both she and Karl would also return to school. The military had meant everything to them when the war was on, but now they found that they didn't ever want to leave their daughter wondering whether or not they would come home.

She looked at her watch, and called out to him. He grinned at her, and slowed the swing, kneeling down in front of it.

"I think Mommy's trying to tell us that it's time to go home for dinner Hera," their daughter looked up at him, and her eyes widened.

"Now daddy? Just a few more minutes? I wanna play on the slide!" His resolve crumbled and he looked at his wife guiltily.

"Okay, sweetie. A few more minutes. Go ahead. Your mom and I will catch up." With that, the child was gone, and he straightened up to his full height. She smiled up at him, amusement, and love clear in her eyes.

"Someday you're going to have to learn to say no to her, Karl." He grinned.

"Now why would I do that. I'll just tell her that you'll decide." He sat down on the recently vacated swing, and she sat in his lap as he slowly moved it back and forth as they watched their daughter clamber around the play structure with another little boy.

"I think she's got an admirer, he commented.

"She's six years old."

"Doesn't matter. She's got my looks. Doesn't that make her irresistible?"

She smiled, remembering Kobol.

o0o

"How much further?"

"Farther," she absentmindedly corrected, as she pushed the branches out of their way.

"What?"

"Farther describes an actual distance. Further is more figurative."

"You're a dictionary now?"

"I'm sorry I'm smarter than you," she smiled, and heard him chuckle quietly.

"Well that's okay. The baby can have your brains as long as he gets my looks." She smiled more widely, having missed their normal banter.

"Yeah? That'd be a real blessing for _her_."

"Her? You know it's a girl?" he asked, clearly surprised.

She looked back at him, and smiled widely. "Yeah."

o0o

"So does that mean she got my brains?" she answered, smiling. His arms encircled her tighter, and she leaned into him. They sat there for a few minutes, just being with each other. Finally, she leaned her head up, and kissed him softly on the lips before getting up.

"We should really get dinner started." She offered him her hand, and he took it as they walked towards the play structure to collect their daughter.

--

He looked at the Galactica as the raptor pulled away. The old ship had been through so much since she had been fated to retire. So had he for that matter. But his scars were not immediately apparent. You could only see them if you took the time to look at his eyes. The Galactica, on the other hand, showed her scars proudly. Her sides were blackened from various missile hits over the years, and parts of the ship were only now starting to become accessible again. He was going to miss watching his ship being brought back to life. For the first time in years, the Battlestar Galactica was fully staffed and crewed, though not by Colonials. Helo and Sharon had been among the last to leave, and now it was his turn. Because though it was wonderful to see her as she had been in her glory years, she was no longer his home. She was filled with memories. Memories of dances, of card games, and drunken revels. Memories of returns from successful missions. Of the launching of a new viper, and of old friends. She would be witness to new memories as she orbited the thirteenth colony, but he would not share them. The memories he had of his Galactica were the only ones he would ever have.

--

_**A/N**__: Huge thanks go out to Mariel3, laloveskt, The Breeze, and BossaNovaBaby24 for reviews. It was so nice to get them. So this is the second last chapter. I will attempt to get the final part up by the end of this week, but not promises. Thanks once again to Alex for being an invaluable sounding board. And to any new readers, welcome. I would be incredibly happy if you would leave a review._


	7. Chapter 7

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Battlestar Galactica, or any of the characters of Galactica. All I own are my ideas and theories._

--

7.

He looked over the endless desert in silence. His small cabin, and the stream that flowed alongside it were the only things that broke the landscape. His feet rested in the water, and as he looked up at the sky he remembered sitting in another streambed on another planet, light-years away.

o0o

He heard her walking up behind him before he heard her voice.

"Didn't expect to find you playing in the sand."

"It's not sand. It's alluvial deposits. This used to be the river mouth."

"And you just had to take of your shoes and play in the alluvial deposits." She turned to face him and smiled slightly. "How romantic." She turned away again to look over the budding tent city, but he continued to watch her.

"That's a nice colour on you," he finally said, avoiding her gaze.

"Thank you." They sat in a comfortable silence for a moment.

"It's good to see you, Laura."

"You too, Bill."

o0o

That time spent orbiting New Caprica had been hard. He hadn't consciously noticed until then how much he looked forward to seeing her every day, and how slow the days were without her. And that night she had convinced him to let some people go, and so his family had shrunk even further. . Even Lee had been over on the Pegasus. As horrible as the cylon attack on New Caprica was, it had gotten the fleet back together. Of course, had they stayed successfully hidden on New Caprica – had the Cloud Nine not exploded – his family might still be alive. Of course, had they stayed, it might have remained fractured. He had no trouble deducing what had happened between Lee and Kara, and knowing the two of them, nothing short of them beating each other half to death would have resolved it. Being a bystander when they had one of their frequent fights could be dangerous.

But now he was alone. He had wanted to be; had asked to settle somewhere that he wouldn't have to live with people. They could never replace his family, and he didn't want them to.

He looked behind him at the ship sitting in the window. It was one of the few personal possessions that he had kept. He didn't keep it for the workmanship of it, but for the scars it bore. It was almost a physical manifestation of his own scars.

He looked back out to the desert and saw figures in the distance that seemed to be moving towards him. He squinted, confused. The only people that he ever saw were those who delivered supplies weekly. The people of Earth had been happy to provide the Colonials with everything they needed to start a new life in exchange for access to the space technology. The Colonials never let on that it was in their best interest for Earth to develop their space program, and so they got off with the better end of the deal. But now there was an obvious crowd of people moving across the empty desert. He stood up, and watched as they approached.

Deserts have the ability to make larger distances seem much shorter, and so it was the better part of an hour before they began to resolve into separate figures. It was at about that time that he started to notice that there was something familiar about them, but at the same time, something slightly odd. As they got closer, he realized that he was staring at the figure in front in disbelief. They stopped on the other side of the river, and he felt a single tear roll down his cheek.

Front and centre was Laura Roslin; no longer suffering from the ravages of cancer, and wearing something very similar to what she had worn to the groundbreaking ceremony several years earlier. Behind her stood Billy Keikeya, still looking the innocent young man that he had always been, and Elosha, who had paid the blood sacrifice on Kobol. Laura smiled at him, and waved. He smiled back before finally allowing his gaze to drift past her.

Saul stood to on side, his arm wrapped securely around his wife, and his missing eye returned to him.

A large portion of the crowd seemed to be full of the Galactica family that had set out in search of Earth so many years ago. He could see Cally, who had airlocked herself not long after the battle of the nebula. Prosna, who had dug out an old picture of him and his sons, and who was one of the many rooks that had been lost in the venting of the port flight pod in the initial cylon attack, was nearby, along with Jammer, who had mysteriously disappeared right after New Caprica. Several other deckhands that he recognized stood behind them.

Among the pilots, he could see Kat, who was joking around with Hot Dog and the others from their nugget group. That had been Kara's first. Racetrack and Skulls, who had been a party to so many discoveries, and had finally been defeated by the explosion in the pilot's rec. room. Seelix and the rest of Sam Anders' basic flight group – the only ones who were not trained by Kara. Countless others; their names ran through his head. People he had known in his early days of service too. Those from the first cylon war, and later.

His eyes fell on his parents, and Carolanne. He had stopped taking out her picture every year, but here she was. His eyes searched the faces in the forefront, looking for those he knew he would find. They finally settled Lee's face. Wrapped loosely in his arms was Kara, an absolutely unguarded smile on her face, the likes of which he had never seen. Slightly to the side of his brother, stood Zak, proudly wearing the uniform that he had fought so hard for.

Bill felt the tears running down his cheeks as he looked at his family again. He wanted to run to them, to embrace them, but somehow he knew that they would fade away should he try that. He contented himself with looking; with drinking in every possible detail. His eyes finally returned to her, seeing her as she would have been had her cancer not returned and robbed her of her life.

He didn't know how long he stared, before he realized that the figures were fading. She gave him a sad smile, and one last wave, before fading completely. He continued to stand there, as the sun slowly sunk lower in the sky. Finally he moved inside, removing a small, silver lighter from his pocket, and using it to light the lamp at the table. He then sat down, and opened the book lying on the table. He had not touched it since she died. Had not been able to bring himself to finish it. He opened it to the last chapter, and as darkness fell around him, he immersed himself in the end of the story, remembering it so that one day he might tell her how it ended.

--

She kneeled in front of the memorial and added a couple of roses to the masses of flowers at the base. Roses seemed to be one of the things that had stayed the same over the years since the exodus of the thirteenth tribe. The ones from Earth were indistinguishable from the ones that used to be found all over the twelve colonies. She heard a slightly uneven footfall behind her.

She stood up next to him. Though Earth's technology in prosthetics was slightly more advanced than the Colonials, he was still unable to walk without a limp.

"Do you come here often?" he asked.

"Once in a while. You?"

"Same. I never really went to look at the memorial wall on Galactica all that often, but this place just seems to draw me. You're looking good, Dee. How's Earth treating you?"

"It's fine. It's almost everything we imagined it to be. How about you? Still working on the Colonial/Earth technology interfacing?"

"Yeah. I really think we're getting somewhere. We're trying to find a replacement for Tylium though. It's probably one of the reasons that they lost space travel. No Tylium to be found for thousands of light-years. Their fleet probably went out to look for it, and got stranded.

She made a slight noise of acknowledgment, as silence fell. They both looked up at the memorial in silence. So many people were lost. Suddenly, her watch beeped, and she looked down at it in surprise.

"I've got to go. I'll see you around, Felix."

He listened to her footsteps fade, and took one last look at the memorial before slowly limping after her.

The inscription on the memorial shone in the setting sun. Words in the ancient language of Kobol; what had come to be known as Latin on Earth: _acta est fabula _– The Play Has Ended.

--

_**A/N**__: Well this is the end. Thank you to all who have stayed with me throughout these little vignettes. Huge thanks go out to all my reviewers; Mariel3, BossaNovaBaby24, The Breeze, laloveskt, jewel of the sea, and Afoo. Thanks to Afoo/Alex, who is my beta, and also the co-creator of the idea for this story. To those of you who I promised more Lee/Kara, well it's not much, but they are in there. Thanks for reading this far, and I would love if you would take a couple seconds to leave a review. _

_And just as an extra note, I would like to comment that I actually came up with the ending right after "The Ties That Bind". When "Faith" came around with Roslin seeing the dead, I was incredibly surprised, and amused that I had shared this thought with the writers._


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